Throwing Stones

Threats and Other Things:  Under instructions from the White House none of those subpoenaed to testify in the House SCIF showed up yesterday so to keep things rolling the Intelligence Committee dropped the transcripts of the testimony that was earlier provided by Marie Yovanovitch, the former US Ambassador to Ukraine, and Michael McKinley, the former senior advisor to Secretary of State Pompeo, who resigned to protest Pompeo’s refusal to support diplomats in the face of their inappropriate treatment by Trump and his cronies.  Yovanovitch detailed how she was targeted by Rudy Giuliani and Ukrainian officials, the officials suspected of fostering the type of corruption that she was supposed to root out as opposed to the phony corruption not committed by the Bidens that Trump wanted her to unearth. At one point Yovanovitch who would have nothing to do with promoting Giuliani’s scheme to get Ukrainian officials to investigate Trump’s political opponents was advised by Ambassador to the EU/Trump Donor/Three Amigo Gordon Sondland to tweet out wonderful things about Trump in order to improve her standing as a last ditch effort to save her job.  She refused to play that game.  Fox pundit Sean Hannity’s name appears in the transcript as at one point Pompeo called him to find out if the derogatory lies being spread about Yovanovitch being a Trump hater were true because what Secretary of State doesn’t seek advice from a Fox conspiracy monger? Pompeo refused to defend Yovanovitch, leading the highly respected McKinley, who Pompeo had personally recruited out of retirement to rejoin State, to resign in protest.  After Trump told Ukraine President Zelensky that Yovanovitch was “going to go through some things” she grew concerned for her safety, a concern that has followed her back to the US where she is still employed by State while serving as a diplomat in residence at Georgetown University.

The transcript of McKinley’s testimony details how he approached Pompeo three times to ask him to stand up for Yovanovitch; Pompeo did nothing for her and later denied that he had even been asked to help her, just another very public bold faced lie from another fanboy doing his best to remain a Trump favorite. Yesterday, when asked about Yovanovitch during a White House lawn presser Trump said “I don’t know much about her.”  He then added that if you look at the transcript the call with Zelensky “he wasn’t a fan of hers, either, but I’m sure she’s a very fine woman.”  Of course Zelensky, who was trying to do what he could to get the military equipment he’d been promised, made his remark during his infamous July 25 call with Trump after being prompted to do so and being advised to say whatever Trump wanted him to say.  The testimony transcripts also reveal how the Republican members of the various committees focused little on real substance, instead using the time to slam the hearing process, question Yovanovitch’s loyalties and ethnic origins, and trying to get her to talk about the absurd conspiracy theory about the DNC server being hidden somewhere in the Ukraine, the same theory that Attorney General Barr and Rudy Giuliani are still “investigating.”

Speaking about Giuliani, although reports are that he is still trying to dig up dirt on the Bidens, his life probably got a little more complicated yesterday, it looks like Lev Parnas, one half of the Lev and Igor show, has decided to answer questions and testify in front of Congress partly because he's truly annoyed that Trump has denied knowing him.  Though his lawyer refused to characterize his willingness to participate as full cooperation, it sure sounds like he’s moving in that direction.  Turning back to Barr for a moment, apparently his requests to various allies, most notably the Brits, for help “proving” that the Russia investigation was inappropriately originated has them freaking out.  Barr isn’t the only one acting really inappropriately, yesterday, echoing Trump, at a Trump rally in Kentucky Senator Rand Paul called for the media “to do your job, print the name of the Whistleblower.” To be clear, Paul and Trump know who the Whistleblower is, they just don’t want to name him publicly because they want someone else to do it so that they aren’t the ones accused of violating the Whistleblower law.  And because, all of this isn’t enough, Trump buddy Roger Stone’s trial begins today.  Remember him, he’s the one with a large tattoo of Richard Nixon on his back because doesn’t everyone sport a Nixon tat?  

One Step Closer:  Yesterday a federal appeals court in New York ruled that Mazars USA, Trump’s accounting firm, must turn over eight years of Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns to a NY state grand jury.  The three judge panel rejected Trump’s argument that he is immune from criminal investigation while in office.  Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow, said that Trump’s legal team would appeal to the Supreme Court but it’s not clear that the Supreme Court will even accept the case unless of course newbie Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch lean in for Trump in gratitude for their lifetime appointments.  Sadly, the US is also one step closer to formally pulling from the Paris Climate accords.  Yesterday, following the terms of the agreement, the Trump administration filed the formal notification that begins the one-year exit process.  That process will culminate the day after the 2020 election, unless of course Trump loses and his replacement immediately changes course which is why virtually every Democratic candidate has said that he or she will reenter the accords on day one of his/her term.  As to 2020, the polls remain all over the place.  This morning a Washington Post-ABC poll shows Trump trailing all five of the Democrats’ current top candidates, Biden, Buttigieg, Harris, Sanders and Warren, but a survey released yesterday by the New York Times and Siena College shows Trump competitive in important swing states Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida where he appears to mostly edge out Elizabeth Warren while losing to Joe Biden in four of the six swingers.  In other words, it looks like a nail biter, anything can happen and will, and we’re still one year out.  So much for polls and surveys not that I know the difference between the two.